Currently the site has planning permission for a 96-bedroom hotel, however the group – which is part of the EasyGroup that includes EasyJet airlines – believes that there is potential to extend the development further to a 130-bedroom hotel, and it is to apply to vary the existing planning permission accordingly.

A total of €18m is expected to be spent on the investment, which will be funded using cash from the group’s balance sheet, together with local debt financing, a statement from the company said.

Commenting on the announcement, Guy Parsons, CEO of EasyHotel, said that the group was “delighted” to have secured the site.

“The Dublin site takes our pipeline of owned/leased projects to 1,280 rooms in addition to the 1,782 franchise rooms currently under development,” Mr Parsons said.

“Europe holds a number of attractive opportunities for the EasyHotel brand and we are keen to achieve a balance in our development pipeline between the UK and Continental Europe, as we look to accelerate our presence in these markets.”

The investment in Dublin is the group’s third new site since its fundraising in March.

It also marks EasyHotel’s second owned hotel investment in Europe, with the group’s first owned European hotel, EasyHotel Barcelona, due to open this summer.

EasyHotel also used the announcement to confirm that it is to appoint a group development director to lead its development in Europe, together with a dedicated team focused initially on Spain, France and Germany.

The company said that the costs associated with these appointments will have a small impact on earnings for the current financial year, and are expected to reduce earnings by around £750,000 in the 2019 and 2020 financial years.

However, EasyHotel said that the additional hotels the team is targeting will “significantly” enhance earnings from 2021 onwards.

Earlier this month the group opened the EasyHotel in Maastricht, taking the total number of hotels in the group to 28.